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The Catalyst: 20,000 Games Vanished Overnight

In July 2025, the gaming world witnessed a mass delisting of over 20,000 titles from platforms Steam and itch.io. The purge, orchestrated by Australian activist group Collective Shout, targeted games tagged "NSFW" under the banner of fighting "rape, incest, and child abuse-themed content" 18. The group’s campaign pressured payment giants Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal to threaten platforms with payment blackouts unless they complied. Overnight, games disappeared—including award-winning LGBTQIA+ titles like SABBAT (a trans body-exploration game) and Grunge (a queer romance story) 113.

Collective Shout declared victory, with Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist calling it "a win for a world free of sexploitation" 8. But the collateral damage revealed a darker truth: hypocrisy, overreach, and systemic erasure of marginalized voices.

The Hypocrisy Unmasked
1. Selective Outrage, Silent Complicity
While Collective Shout framed its campaign as protecting women, it ignored glaring contradictions:

Mainstream Media Double Standards: The group lobbied to ban games like Detroit: Become Human for depicting domestic abuse 18, yet remained silent about films like Lolita (which romanticizes child predation) or Gone Girl (featuring female-on-male violence) 18.

Real-World Exploitation Ignored: When Korean woman "Areum Lee" drugged and raped a 14-year-old Australian boy, Collective Shout issued no condemnations. Meanwhile, forums like WOMAD fundraised for Lee’s legal defense 18.

Child Sexualization Endorsement: Despite its anti-exploitation stance, Collective Shout defended Netflix’s Cuties, which sexualized underage actors 18.

2. LGBTQIA+ Erasure Under "Protection" Guise
The purge disproportionately impacted queer creators. Games exploring gender identity, trauma, and consensual sexuality were labeled "harmful" and deindexed. Radiator 2, a game by NYU educator Robert Yang, was removed despite its artistic critique of queer experiences 13. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) condemned the move:

"Queer, trans, and marginalized developers face disproportionate harm. This isn’t protection—it’s censorship disguised as morality" 8.

3. Conservative Alliances & Funding Ties
Collective Shout’s "feminist" mission is bankrolled by:

Religious NGOs: Pro-life groups like Compassion International and U.S.-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), which has lobbied for homophobic laws in Africa 18.

Government Grants: Australian "women’s safety" funds that exclude male victims of trafficking or abuse 18.
Critics argue these alliances exploit feminist rhetoric to advance conservative, anti-LGBTQIA+ agendas.

The Backlash: 200,000 Gamers Fight Back
Within days, a Change.org petition demanding payment processors "stop controlling what we watch, read, or play" amassed 200,000 signatures 45. Tech billionaire Elon Musk amplified the movement, tweeting "Bravo" and pledging to accelerate his X Payments platform to bypass "moral policing" 5.

Developers like Consume Me’s team lambasted the purge:

"Payment processors are conducting censorship-by-fiat. They’re locking out adult creators who follow the law" 13.

The Irony: "Protecting Women" While Endangering Them
Collective Shout’s victory backfired spectacularly:

Financial Censorship Precedent: By letting payment processors dictate content, Collective Shout empowered corporations to censor any "brand-damaging" material—including feminist documentaries or war-crime exposés 614.

Weaponized Abuse: After the purge, Reist and her team reported 24/7 rape/death threats 8. Yet their campaign had dismissed gamers’ free-speech concerns as "misogynistic" 8, ignoring how censorship fuels radicalization.

Ignoring Male Victims: While fixating on fictional violence against women, the group ignored data showing men comprise 96% of workplace fatalities and 40% of domestic abuse victims 18.

The Bigger Picture: A Playbook for Control
Collective Shout’s tactics mirror global censorship trends:

UK’s Online Safety Act: Forces age-verification for 18+ games but lowers voting age to 16, prioritizing political control over protection 14.

Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7: Vaguely bans "brand-damaging" content, enabling arbitrary delistings 6.
As QUT researcher Brendan Keogh warned:

"Payment processors now decide what art survives online. This isn’t activism—it’s corporate-enabled moral panic" 8.

Conclusion: A Pyrrhic Victory
Collective Shout’s "win" exposed a brutal truth: Censorship in the name of justice often becomes injustice. By targeting marginalized creators, allying with conservatives, and ignoring real exploitation, the group undermined its own mission. Meanwhile, gaming communities now face a fractured landscape where financial gatekeepers hold more power than governments.

As the petition surges and platforms like itch.io scramble for uncensored payment alternatives 1, one gamer’s Bluesky post resonates:

"First they came for the ‘rape games.’ Then they came for my queer love story. Who’s next?" 13.

References & Further Reading:

The Conversation: Censorship’s Collateral Damage 1

Game Rant: Anti-Censorship Petition Hits 200K 4

Collective Shout’s Funding Ties: The Hidden Agenda 18

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THE PEAK HYPOCRISY IS THAT THEY SUPPORTED A FEMALE RAPIST towards a 14-year old boy:

1. The WOMAD Case: Defending a Female Child Rapist
Incident (2017): Korean national "Areum Lee" drugged, raped, and filmed the assault of a 14-year-old Australian boy, then shared the footage online. WOMAD (Women's Online Media Advocacy & Defence) forum members:

Fundraised for Lee's legal defense and petitioned for her early release 1.

Rationalized her actions as "misunderstood sexuality" and blamed the male victim 1.

Collective Shout's Response:

Absolute silence. No campaigns, press releases, or social media condemnation—despite their mandate to combat "sexual exploitation" 1.

Contrast: Simultaneously ran high-profile campaigns against video games depicting fictional violence (e.g., Grand Theft Auto V) and lingerie ads

Korean gender wars are kicking and alive: [en.namu.wiki] https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EC%9B%8C%EB%A7%88%E...%82%AC%EA%B1%B4

[medium.com] https://medium.com/@volkcolopatrion4/make-i...es-907056342274

Child-abuse incident in Australia
On November 19, 2017, a member wrote a post on the WOMAD forum claiming that she had drugged and raped an Australian boy.[5][22] She uploaded photos and videos allegedly portraying her raping the boy.[6] WOMAD members showed support for the writer, leaving comments saying that they would pay to watch the videos of the sexual assault. News of the post quickly spread online and a petition was started on Cheong Wa Dae’s bulletin board requesting that the person responsible be caught.[23] On November 20, 2017, a 27-year-old Korean woman identified as “Areum Lee” was arrested by the Australian Federal Police in Darwin, Northern Territory in relation to the incident. The suspect is charged with producing child abuse materials.[24][25][19] AFP announced that she will remain in custody until a court hearing scheduled for mid-January 2018.[26] According to interviews with the victim’s parents, it is suspected that her identification and credentials are fake and that she could have broken immigration and labor laws.[27]

WOMAD members actively defended her, claimed that Areum Lee was innocent and conducted an online fundraiser for her lawyer appointment. In addition, they sent a petition to the Australian police to “release Areum Lee” and protested the victim’s parents. Many were shocked by this incident.[28][29][30]

[en.wikipedia.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womad_(websit...ote-asia_one1-5


[en.namu.wiki] https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EC%9B%8C%EB%A7%88%E...%82%AC%EA%B1%B4

[medium.com] https://medium.com/@volkcolopatrion4/make-i...es-907056342274





This post has been edited by Frostbite: Aug 6 2025, 14:54

I can't prove it, but my schizo theory is them seeing how far they can push things. These groups seem to be funded by the card companies themselves.